Titan Co. has taken a 30% impairment on the $20 million investment it made in lab-grown diamond e-tailer Clean Origin, executives announced on a May 10 earnings call.
“That business is linked to what’s been happening in the U.S.,” said Titan CEO Ajoy Chawla on the call. “In the U.S. there has been significant stress in the market, both for natural and for lab-grown, largely on account of intense competitive pressures at their end and falling average order values because of the drop in prices of lab-grown linked to the supply glut of lab-grown.”
In 2022, Titan invested $20 million in Clean Origin’s parent company, Great Heights. The investment gave Titan approximately 13.09% of the economic interest and 17.54% of the voting control in Great Heights, which was valued at $152.8 million.
Clean Origin did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Top: A Clean Origin store (photo courtesy of Clean Origin)
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